Archived News Items

CVS Event

January 4, 2013
Center for Vision Sciences Symposium
Friday, Jan 3-2014 from 8:45-6:00 pm, Genome Building (GBSF 1005)

The key note speaker this year is Brian A. Wandell, Director, Stanford’s Center for Neurobiological Imaging, Stanford University

New methods for measuring activity, connections and tissue properties in the living human brain

There has been extraordinary progress in our ability to measure tissue, structure, and function in the living human brain. I will explain several magnetic resonance imaging methods that quantify properties of the living human brain – both cortex and white matter - in individual subjects. The ability to make these measures in individual subjects and patients significantly enhances the value of these techniques for clinical applications.

First, I will discuss how functional magnetic resonance is used to measure the size, position, and stimulus selectivity of cortical maps in individual subjects. I will discuss a subject born without an optic chiasm, and how these maps are transformed. Next, I will describe how diffusion-weighted imaging is used to identify the major white matter tracts. The tissue properties within certain pathways are predictive of specific cognitive skills, including reading, demonstrating the importance of white matter tissue development for cognitive function. Finally, I will describe quantitative measurements of key MR parameters, including proton density and T1. Quantification of these parameters, coupled with biophysical models, enables us to measure new properties of tissue density and chemistry that clarify changes across the lifespan and in neurodegenerative disease.

Relevant publications

Quantifying the local tissue volume and composition in individual brains with magnetic resonance imaging.
Mezer, Yeatman, Stikov, Kay, Cho, Dougherty, Perry, Parvizi, Hua, Butts-Pauly & Wandell (2013). Nature Medicine